The aged-up idol is not as common these days, as the last major series to feature a main character as an aged-up magical idol was Fullmoon wo Sagashite (2002) which was unique in that the protagonist was terminally ill and thus her magical idol transformation was a way to achieve an otherwise impossible dream. They began with Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel (1983) and finished with Fancy Lala, the Magic Stage (1988). Rather than staying as elementary school witchlings, their powers granted them the ability to magically grow up-just old enough to work as an idol. Magical idols really took off in the 1980s when Studio Pierrot produced a series of year-long shows featuring normal elementary school girls who earned the right to magic for a year from an otherworldly being or beings. As such it’s no surprise that the idol concept got wrapped up in the magical girl world as well. The modern concept of the idol in Japan was born just around the same time as the magical girl, after the success of the French film Cherchez l’idole (1963). While this type of series is less commonly produced in Japan these days, you can find contemporary Western series fitting this mold in stories like Disney Channel’s Sofia the First (2012) or Italy’s magical girl retelling of Sissi: The Young Empress (2015). While terms like majokko and magical girl imply the existence of magic, the fantasy genre framework isn’t strict: androids like Miracle Girl Limit-chan (1973) and psychics like Mami the Psychic (1977) also get thrown into the mix. While there is often a small cast of friends around the majokko, you can expect the occasional visits from characters from the magical world and a lot of one-off characters who the little witch befriends before never being seen again. Most episodes feature common elementary school conflicts such as bullies, struggling with studies, or interpersonal relationships with friends and neighbors. Sally the Witch (1966) is the former, while Secret Akko-chan (adapted to animation in 1969) was the latter. The main character is either a witch-in-training from another land who comes to the human world, or is a perfectly normal human girl who is given a magic item that she can use pretty freely. Despite the name, majokko is also used as an umbrella term for magical girls of the 60s and 70s, including Cutie Honey (who we’ll get to later), but generally the same tone and types of episodes exist throughout all the shows. When talking about the original magical girls, the word majokko often comes up, meaning little witch or witchling. If you’ve seen any amount of these media, you can probably get some ideas for what to expect from an early magical girl protagonist (or use it to argue that WandaVision is a magical girl program at your next covid-safe dinner party). While she wasn’t a love interest to a protagonist (sorry, Dick Van Dyke, but Bert was not the central character), she was a troublemaker breaking all the rules with her childlike whimsy, making Edwardian London a much more fantastical place. Just the year before, Mary Poppins (not retitled this time) had hit Japanese theaters. With the marketing of Jeannie as another witch, we had two stories featuring male characters and magical women as love interests. At the same time, I Dream of Jeannie, retitled Kawaii Majo Jeannie (Cute Witch Jeannie) was also airing. )īewitched, retitled Okusama wa Majo (My Wife Is A Witch) aired in Japan starting from September of 1966. Occupation (which, depending on where you live, continues to this day ), and also seeing a newfound freedom with a generation of teens and girls living in a world where women’s suffrage has always been legal. It might seem a surprise that the origins of a predominantly Japanese genre lie in live-action American TV, but we were a full generation past World War II, surviving U.S. I’d like to quickly explore the origin of the magical girl, because this will help to see how two varieties of the magical girl were born.
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